The Cursed King

Some people were able to move and have happy lives. Even though Lady Rose Goodwin initially seemed opposed to the marriage between Elise and Loriel, now that she found a good husband and was married, the woman seemed a lot happier.

Elise didn't know if the woman's personality changed, but even during the time of war and rebellion between Summeria's colonies, the lady sent good news to the palace.

A part of Elise wondered if the invitation was an intentional insult to her face.

"Your Majesty, shall we send a refusal to the invitation?" Alina asked the queen slowly. Even though Alina was the head maid, she had noticed how their once patient princess from Myreen became more angry and bitter now that she was the king of Summeria's wife.

A painful smile crossed Elise's lips as she tossed aside the letter. "Burn it. Burn it."

Alina slowly reached out for the letter, but then Elise quickly took it again and burned the invitation and envelope by herself. The ashes crumbled in her bed but doing it made Elise feel better.

However, it was all temporary relief.

A sickening feeling wormed its way to Elise's stomach as tears pricked and stung her eyes. She wiped and rubbed at her eyes furiously and tried not to quickly fall into despair. "She knows and she's trying to rub it in my face that I can't have a child."

Did Rose know that Elise was barren?

Probably a yes.

Duke Goodwin knew a lot of information about the palace so maybe this invitation to Rose's sister-in-law's baby shower was to show Elise what she couldn't do.

An awful reminder of everything that pained Elise.

Before Elise and her maidservants knew it, Elise was already curling over in pain and hiding herself in her bedsheets.

Without anything else for her to do, most of the waking hours of Elise were spent in agony or staring blankly in the room.

Sometimes, Elise wouldn't do anything at all, staring helplessly and filled with dark and negative thoughts that scorned her.

At other times she bawled and sob in her bed for hours until her throat became dry and she could not shed another tear any longer.

The depression and pain she encountered during her miscarriage somehow now paled in comparison to the ache of knowing that she was barren for good.

***

Loriel stared at the report from his military head and found his heart sinking for a moment.

All of his men that were heading to control the rebellion in the Areaon colony found themselves dying in a trap set out by his brother-in-laws.

Somehow, there were several magical type explosions planted in a city that exploded once all of his men entered the desolated lands. Most of the buildings crushed individuals and blasted sharp rocks and shrapnels for these unassuming soldiers.

No one expected for these rebels to get ahold of great weapons for warfare. Nobody expected them to be sold such weapons and that was Loriel's fault to expect that other kingdoms were on Summeria's side.

There must have been kingdoms that wanted Summeria to fall if the rebels found such support from outsiders and this was the only beginning.

Only a few remaining people survived to even make the report to him.

The king of Summeria clenched his fist and closed his eyes in pain. It was hard for people to figure out that he cared about them because he never showed it to them and most people assumed he took on the role because there was no other option.

However, it didn't mean that he did not care about the deaths at all.

Thousands of good men were gone in an instant that Loriel blamed himself.

It was his fault.

"Perhaps if I had been there…" Loriel gritted his teeth.

There was no use mourning over what has already been lost. His officials were already asking for a new strategy and there were other state affairs that needed to be taken care of because of the implications of war threatening merchants that came from beyond Summeria.

All of this was a mess. Everything in Loriel's life was a mess and he wondered if he could actually do anything at all. Loriel hesitated and stood up from his table to get himself a drink from his deceased father's personal stash of wine and alcohol.

The late king of Summeria loved drinking and enjoyed alcohol after a long and hard day of work. It was the reason why even Loriel's office had a good stash of them even though he didn't actually like drinking that much.

For now though, Loriel couldn't help but think it was appropriate.

Anything to get his mind off of his overwhelming problems. Loriel opened the safe and got a hold of a beautiful wine bottle and quickly opened it to pour himself a goblet.

He took one swig down and felt his body heat up. The slightly bitter yet tangy flavor washed down some of the worry and pain away as his head lightened up.

"I'll think better after this," Loriel whispered to himself as he drank another mouthful of wine.

Loriel would begin to feel a bit better, if not slightly drunk as he finished an entire bottle all by himself. But then the doors to his study would suddenly slam open as a frantic butler came to him.

Horatio looked panicked. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please come see the queen!"

"What is it?" Loriel's gaze narrowed slightly at the man and he found himself agonizing over the idea of coming to see his wife and have her fight against him again. He was not in the mood or capacity for patience.

Horatio gulped and looked worriedly at him. "Her Majesty is attempting to jump down from the queen's tower, Your Majesty!"

Loriel's eyes bulged for a moment. The wine goblet in his hand clattered down the floor and before he knew it, Loriel was already desperately running and heading for the queen's palace.

The king fervently hoped and prayed that Elise's servants were delaying and already preventing the queen from jumping, but he still needed to be there.